Conor Calabro ’10 was eight years old when he began to play the piano. His father had bought a rundown, out-of-tune piano at a price too low to ignore. When his parents saw him plunking tentatively at its keys, they signed him up for lessons.

Calabro already had an ear for music, though he quickly grew bored of the obligatory classical tunes typical of beginner lessons.

“I remember my first piano teacher bribing me by letting me play a song by the Beatles or Scott Joplin, as long as I played something classical as well,” Calabro says.

Playing the piano became more than just rote practice – soon enough, he learned to make music of his own. At Shepaug Valley High School, Calabro persuaded the administration to let him take an independent course in songwriting. Then, at the age of 18, he took a chance: he sent his résumé to hotels and restaurants in Ireland. Calabro struck a chord with one hotel in Ballybunion, and has since returned there each summer as the town’s resident pianist.

He seemed destined for an audience. In 2006, after a lesson with prominent pianist and associate professor Neal Larrabee, Calabro enrolled in the School of Fine Arts as a performance major. Then, after taking a few music education courses and being inspired by the enthusiasm of his classmates and professors, he added a music education degree to his plans.

Scholarships have enabled Calabro to dedicate most of his time to these two majors. Instead of a typical student job, he works as an accompanist at recitals and other campus events, increasing his proficiency as a performer and helping his friends at the same time. There are so few accompanists on campus that he’s an almost-constant figure in the background at student performances.

Calabro considers one of his scholarships a remarkable coincidence. As a young pianist, Calabro grew up watching the Danish conductor, comedian, and composer Victor Borge on television reruns. Borge, a long-time UConn supporter, received an honorary degree from the University in 1983, and Calabro received the Victor Borge Memorial Scholarship each year from 2007 to 2009. “At the time, I didn’t realize he had such a connection to UConn,” Calabro says. “He was an incredible pianist and comedian.”

This past July, a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) grant enabled Calabro to study in Los Angeles under Craig Safan, a composer most famous for his work on the popular sitcom, “Cheers.” Safan is currently composing the music for next year’s national tour of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. As Safan’s first apprentice, Calabro did everything from writing drum beats for the show to searching through hundreds of computerized sounds for the perfect effect. “The SURF grant really made this possible, as my work for Craig was unpaid,” Calabro says.

After graduating in May, Calabro planned to attend graduate school for a performance degree and then go on to teach elementary or middle school students.

His work with Safan was another step toward that goal. “A big part of my SURF project was the inclusion of film scoring in general music classrooms,” he says. “I believe that with the readily available technology, this could be a very contemporary way to educate students on much older musical concepts.”

Calabro has gone from a child who wanted to be a musician to an educator who wants to teach music. His journey hasn’t been pitch-perfect, but it all began with that out-of-tune piano in Roxbury.

Says Calabro, “Music ended up being what I want to do with my life.”

For more information on supporting Summer Research fellowships, please contact the Foundation’s development department.